Battles Dross Glop spot the difference quiz

On the left is the glorious, scrumptious cover for Battles' Dross Glop, a collection of 12" remixes of their 2011 album Gloss Drop.  The remixes feature twiddles from people like Hudson Mohawke, The Field and Kode 9.

On the right is the same album cover with ten changes. Can you spot the difference?

Simple, really. Ten differences in the right-hand picture. How hard can it be? Circle the answers on your computer monitor.

Don't feel you have to squint like Godzilla stalking a really fit flea. Click the picture (or here) for a proper big version, which you can then download or resize or print or whatever.

Want the answer? See here.

Happy difference-spotting!

Further Fats: When I first discovered Battles in 2007

All Warp Records stock destroyed in Sony / PIAS fire

I had been chiselling out a blog post about the Sony DADC warehouse fire that claimed the stock of scores of independent record labels in the UK, including Warp Records.

Today, Warp issued a statement on how the fire, caused by the London riots, had affected them. It was not good news.

"All of Warp's UK stock appears to have been lost in the fire," say Warp.

Read that again. Horrible.

"The Sony DADC warehouse also acted as our international distribution hub and so this has affected our ability to supply our overseas partners."

They go on to state that forthcoming released by Grizzly Bear offshoot CANT (as obtuse a name as !!!), uber knob-twonk Rustie and techno veterans Plaid will go ahead, but that funtime high-cymballed beat combo Battles may have to cope with a digital-only version of their next single My Machines.

Label Love is a campaign to raise cash for the many labels affected by the blaze. There is one event already scheduled, and I hope Manchester can organise something similar. PIAS, who sub-contract the warehouse, have also teamed up with the Association of Independent Music to support those affected.

But the worry is not just financial.

"The biggest challenge for us," continues the statement, "is replacing Warp's extensive back catalogue spanning the last 21 years. We will replace as much of this as we can by creating new stock and replenishing where possible with stock from outside the UK. Unfortunately some releases may never be available physically again."

"We will be closely supporting PIAS in their efforts to get the independent music community up and running as quickly as they can."

There's not much else to say. My planned blog post, full of theoretical blatherings about the wider affect of the fire and the riots, has been thrown into the bin. All that remains is a deep sadness for Warp Records and the effect of this incident on the legacy that has fed this blog for years.

Not just Warp, either, of course. A full list of labels follows in small print.

All that, before we even get to the human tragedy of the stupid, stupid riots. What a sad few days.

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[PIAS] Recordings, [PIAS] Recordings Belgium, 4AD, A Camp, Absynthe Minded, Accidental, AEI Music, Air Recordings, ALC Music, Alsation, Ambush Reality, Ancient & Modern, Angular Recording Corporation, Arcady Records, Ark Recordings, Asthmatic Kitty Records, Atlantic Jaxx Recordings, Bad Magic, Balling The Jack, Banquet Records, Battered Ornaments Records, Beggars Banquet, Best Before, Big Brother, Big Dada, Bird Records, Blackmaps, Bloody Chamber, Blowout Music, Blue Chopsticks, Border Community, Borstal Beats, Boysnoize Records, BPM, Brainfeeder, Brassland, Bright Star Recordings, Brille, Broken Sound Music, Bronzerat, Brothers and Sisters, Brownswood Recordings, Buzzin’ Fly, Cache Cache, Cadenza Records, Celluloid Records, Chalkmark / IE, Chemikal Underground Records, Cocoon, Control Tower, Counter Records, Dance To The Radio, Dead Oceans, Deceptive, Defenders, Ent UK, DESOLAT, Dessous, Different, Dirtee Stank, Divine Comedy Records, Domino Records, Double Six Records, Drag City, Dreambrother, Drive Thru Records, Drowned In Sound, Dummy Records, Duophonic, Eat Sleep Records, Fabric Worldwide, Fake Diamonds, FantasyTrashcan, Fatcat Records, Fence, Feraltone, Finders Keepers Records, Flock Music, Flying Circus, Freerange Records, Friends Vs Records, Full Pupp, Full Time Hobby, Gang Of Four Recordings, Geographic, Ghost Ship, Glaze Recordings, Groenland Records, G-Unit, Hardly Art, Hassle Records, Helpless, Hem Hem Records, HFN Music, Immune, Independiente, Infant, Infectious, Jagjaguwar, Kartel, Kitchenware, Kitsune, KMS Records / Fabric, Laughing Stock, Lex Records, Lipservice, Little Sister Recordings, LO-MAX Records, Loose Music, Lovepump United, Low Life Records, Lucky Number Music, Lucky Seven Records, Mantra, Matador, Memphis Industries, Merok, Metric Music International, Metroline Limited, Model Citizen, Moikai, Motion Audio, MyMajorLabel Ltd, Nation, Ninja Tune, No Quarter, NovaMute, Nusic Sounds, One Four Seven Records Ltd, One Little Indian, Organs, Outcaste, OVNI, P.I.L., Peartree, Records, PeMa, People In The Sky, People Tree, Pirates Blend Records Inc, Planet Function, Play It Again Sam, Playlouder, Poker Flat, Polyvinyl, Records, Poseidon Records, Post Present, Pschent, Raw Canvas, Red Cord Records, REK’D, Rekids, Rekords Rekords, Renaissance, Reveal Records, Riverman Records, Rock Action Records, Roots Records, Rough Trade Records, Rubyworks, Sea Note, Search and Destroy, Secretly Canadian, Setanta, Shape, SideOneDummy Records, Silva Screen, Slam Dunk Records, Smekkleysa, Soma, Sonic Cathedral, Soul Jazz Records, South Paw, Southern Fried Records, Stereo Bang Media, Stolen Recordings, Stranger Records, Streamline, Sub Pop, Suicide Squeeze, Sunday Best, Thrill Jockey, Tirk, Too Pure, Torque Records, Touch & Go Records, Transmission Recordings, Tri Tone, Trouble Records, True Panther, Try Harder, Turnstile, Twisted Nerve Recordings, Universal Sound, Victory Records, Wagram, Wall of Sound, Warp, Watergate, We Love You, Wiiija, Willkommen Records Ltd, Wonderfulsound, XL, Xtra Mile Recordings, Yaala Yaala, Young Turks

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Battles at the Apollo: A gaping hole where Imelda Staunton should be

Apart from the odd blog thing and a number plate I once won at secondary school, I don't tend to get many prizes.

So when I won tickets to Battles and Caribou at the weekend, courtesy of Now Wave and Chimp Magazine, I was somewhat made up.

It came on the back of getting a story into an anthology for the first time. You can read it if you want to. The tale will be especially pleasing for people who like speedboats, Lenor or guttering.

Anyhoo, Battles were superb, what with their complicated rhythms and unreasonably-constructed high-cymballed drum kit. It took me back to 1926 when I first discovered post rock, back in the days when music had to have subtitles because it was still all silent.

Manchester blogging legend The Pigeon Post got a shout-out from Star Slinger, which was lovely because it felt like "one for the bloggers". And I ended the night at the Greenroom for one last hurrah as that brilliant venue was finally mothballed.

It was strange, then, that there was a sour taste to the night. For that taste, we have to look to a curious no-show from one of the support acts: Actress.

You cannot underestimate the hugeness of Actress. He co-founded Hyperdub and through his Werk label has brought us Starkey, Lukid and Zomby. I called his Splazsh LP an "essential album for 2010". I was looking forward to his set more than the others.

Despite the hype (NewsicMoos pick of the week, for example), Actress forgot to put the date in his diary. He simply didn't turn up. It's not the first time, of course: he also failed to show at Deviation and Eastern Electrics' bank holiday bash in London a week ago.

My views on artists that don't do their jobs has been made crystal clear on these blog pages before now.

I'm not sure how to react. I can't tweet him because he's deleted his account. And he hasn't updated the Werk Discs website for a couple of years.

There's only one thing for it. I'm boycotting all actresses.

I now dedicate my life to the following:

- an entire absence of Nicole Kidman;

- approximately zero amounts of Michelle Williams;

- no Greta Garbo;

- not a single Halle Berry: not even one;

- a gaping hole where Imelda Staunton should be;

- no Whoopi Goldberg, although to be honest...;

- Grace Kelly? Not on your nelly;

- I'm even boycotting Frances McDormand. Don't try and stop me.

Actress has driven me to this. I'm prepared to unleash a torrent of similar boycotts, so watch out - especially Zomby, Deadboy and Border Community's Lazy Fat People.

Tyondai 'TyBo' Braxton retreats from Battles

Tyondai Braxton left Battles today. Now, the math rockers are like Radiohead without their Thom, like Hot Chip without their Alexis, like... shudder... Five without their Abs.

Of course, Braxton was already a known solo artist, laying out his stall with album Central Market a while ago. But Battles' expected follow-up to 2007's Mirrored was their Second Coming moment, and chez Roland has been awash with salivation for some time.

Braxton, or TyBo as his solo moniker will no doubt become, said in a statement:

"Our model has always had a controlled shapelessness to it and I know John, Ian and Dave are looking forward sculpting an even better way forward. I look forward to be able to continue my music and am very excited at the prospect of being able to dig deeper in my own work."

Amid that clash of archaeological and artistic metaphors lies a musician who is determined to paint a solo legacy that will leave fossils of sonic goodness that last longer than the huge dinosaur imprint made by Battles.

What will the future hold? Because Battles cited Braxton's unwillingness to tour as part of their mutual decision to split, I'm hoping Tyondai becomes a crazy, bearded recluse that makes Syd Barrett look like a jazz-handed pap-seeking celeb.

As for Battles, they may be better off without TyBo's vocals. It clearly wasn't working for them, and it seems that without their frontman, they will get the album wrapped up in advance of a tour next year.

A friend of mine dislikes Battles because THAT big hit sounded like Gary Glitter. Meanwhile, this eager blogger awaits TyBo's new material with tongue a-loll.

Who will be better? The original band or the newly-free TyBo?

And will it result in a massive conflict between them? You know - that type of conflict that's not a full-scale war, but not just a few skirmishes either. A conflict that's somewhere inbetween the two. There's a word for it... I forget....

What do you think of today's news? Is this the day that music died? Are you too busy listening to country and western to notice? Leave your comment below and we can have a bit of a Battle prattle between ourselves.

Fat Roland's 2010 electronica preview, part two: The Official BBC Electronica DJs In Need Medley

This is part two of my 2010 preview. Here is the link for part one.

Writing a preview for 2010 is easy for earlier in the year. Once you get into spring onwards, it all gets a little fuzzy. So here's my attempt at a preview of electronic music in the rest of 2010, but it may look a little like a blind man punching at the wind.

April - December: "boom bang a bang"

In yesterday's preview, I missed the somewhat tribal Nice Nice and their See Waves single in February. But what I can say is, in April they will give us Extra Wow, an album advertised by their label as a "sprawling psychedelic monolith." I also missed Soma 2010, the Glaswegian techno label's slightly delayed annual compilation bonanza.

Flying Lotus's DJ Kicks CD, mentioned yesterday, should get an mid-April release. Meanwhile, in May, Venetian Snares will win the Eurovision song contest with his version of Boom Bang A Bang. Okay, I lied about that bit.

As summer bears its sweaty heat down upon us, you should go and see Orbital: they'll be touring again, in particular at the Isle Of Wight festival in the middle of June.

LFO collaborator Bjork will appear on the soundtrack to summer 2010’s guaranteed blockbuster movie Moomins And The Comet Chase. Yep. That’s right. The Moomins. Imagine Moon, but replace all the Sam Rockwells with talking marshmallows. This is going to be a classic.

And I can bring your more information about Battles. The band called a ceasefire while Tyondai Braxton worked through some solo stuff, but it’s back to war again in 2010 – well, at least, in the second half of 2010 when their new album is due.

And finally, for scheduled releases in 2010, it's time to get Parisian on yo ass. Daft Punk have been leaking Tron Legacy images on their Twitter feed. The duo have recorded the soundtrack to the film, although it’s not due for release until Christmas 2010. I reckon this will at least ten per cent better than the Moomins film.

Other electronica releases in 2010: "glitchy wonkiness"

Like an unwashed Top Gear fan, I am severely lacking in dates. But this much I know is true:

Eclectic 2-stepper FaltyDL, who delivered Love Is a Liability for Planet Mu this year, is working on a disco album. In less exciting news, "crazy” beat jugglers The Avalanches are in the process of clearing samples for an album supposedly due out in '10 – but don’t hold your breath.

I read somewhere that Boards of Canada have been working on material for three years and it should hit in 2010, but I that’s all I know. And while I'm speculating, Bibio released about 42,000 albums in 2009, so don’t be too surprised to see more material in 2010.

Ikonika will be hopping from Planet Mu to the excellent Hyperdub label to produce a soulful dubstep album without all the wobbly basslines. Hyperdub is not only due to release material from London rookie DVA and long-time grime producer Terror Danjah - they're also promising a debut single from a new artist they're refusing to name.

The glitchy wonkiness foisted on us by Glasgow's LuckyMe crew should continue to be a highlight for 2010. The most anticipated album of 2010, for my money, is the one by Rustie. Assuming he gets round to recording one. And Hudson Mohawke is working on material with Olivier Daysoul – whether it means another album, we’ll have to wait and see.

Expect an album from De Tropix, whose Adeyhey joint has been smearing dancefloors this year. De Tropix is aa London duo that bridges the gap between Prince Buster and Neneh Cherry,

You can also expect something from Gold Panda, with his lovely mix of techno wandering and folktronic meandering. Broadcast will produce an album in 2010, following up their amazingly entitled 2009 production Broadcast And The Focus Group Investigate Witch Cults of the Radio Age.

Oh and there's Manchester band's Everything Everything's debut album too. And the Klaxons maybe. And lots of stuff from the Outkast boys. And Floating Points. And Tiefschwarz. And Beak, a.k.a. that bloke from Portishead.

Let me leave you with a final thought from the greatest dance band of all time.

The Vengaboys recently started touring again and are working on a new single to be released soon. Their producers Danski and Delmundo have released a statement that possibly summarises 2010's potential musical legacy. The Vengaboys say:

"2010 is the year! Look out for the new hit! It's the most gay song we've ever made."

Actual quote. Brilliant. That's enough blogging for a couple of days. I'm off for a lie down and a pint of whisky.

This is part two of my 2010 preview. Here is the link for part one.

M*therf*dding Risil is not the m*therf*dding shizzle, m*therf*dders

Risil's album Non Meters (pictured) is the only album in the world* that can only be described with a four syllable word: polyrhythmic.

It's a collaboration between (pay attention now) Prefuse 73's Guillermo Herren, Hella's Zach Hill, Battles' Tyondai Braxton (no, not the hit singer of Unbreak My Heart), Tortoise's John McEntire... oh and blah blah blah, about a thousand other people.

With such talent on display, and with a band name sounding like it was dream up by Snoop Dogg, you'd expect more than just expansive, lurching psychedelia that doesn't quite gel.

There Has To Be is the soundtrack to half my nightmares, and the frenetic drumming on Zantra is most pleasing. But, Risil is not the shizzle.

Speaking of Snoop Dogg, you know Dogg After Dark? The programme where Calvin Broadus Jr gets it aaawwwn with bee-yatches, young hippety-bling superstars and besuited gangsters? That's my house every night.

Without the women.

Or the gangsters.

Or the hop hop.

Or the television coverage and numerous producers giving it the sheen of credibility, when in fact it's just a West Coast version of The Word.

*there may be one or two others.

Top of the bleeps: what's hot and banging bad-style right now

Topping the downloads list on electronic music's answer to the Arndale Centre, Bleep dot com, is Clark's Totems Flare album. I've got it cranked to the gills as I type; it's a brilliant analogue wig out designed as much for the tootsies as for the cranial glue.

The second most downloaded album is a debut LP from Bibio. Ambivalence Avenue has been covered here before: click the Bibio link at the bottom of this article. Bleep says it's like a lost 70s folk record.

Here is the rest of the top ten on Bleep:

3. Clark - Growls Garden (track). Marvin The Paranoid Android malfunctions at an 80's disco.

4. Tim Exile - Listening Tree. Another debut album and probably Warp Records' only gabba opus.

5. The Black Dog - Further Vexation. I'm pimping their previous album Radio Scarecrow a lot right now, but this record is darker, frownier and more techno.

6. Battles - Mirrored. An old one but a classic, described by Pitchfork with this trio of scintillating sentences: "Marc Bolan is dead. But Battles can rebuild him. They have the technology."

7. Diamond Watch Wrists - Ice Capped At Both Ends. This is Prefuse 73 stretching out his legs and playing footsie with a percussionist. 

8. Floating Points - J & W Beat. Best described as bubbly 2-step. Yes. Bubbly.

9. Bizzy B - Retrospective. A look back at the best of the master of the Amen break. No Bizzy B, no Venetian Snares.

10. Moritz Von Oswald Trio (pictured, photo from Stink Finger) - Vertical Ascent. I don't know too much about this, although I think it's got something to do with AGF.

Damn, this Clark album I'm listening to is good. It's like old Aphex Twin a million years into the future. Meanwhile, the top ten on Bleep has already changed while I've been typing this. Please scrub out this post. You'll find a permanent marker pen under your chair.

Bullion's trundling, Mount Kimbie's clonking, while Dan Deacon does the splits

I'm not one for sweeping statements, but...

The single is dead. Downloads beat it in the face with a hammer until it was reduced to a bloody, single-flavoured soup.

So let me pop you a few quick reviews of, er, two EPs and a 12-inch. They're definitely not singles. They are two EPs and a 12-inch.

The first EP can be filed under 'psych soul'. Bullion's Young Heartache EP grabs recognisable, commercial soul sounds and gently caresses them until they're a wobbling wreck of half-hip hop.  It's smooth house that's been put on rollers and trundled into a river. Disorienting currents, courtesy of some nifty compressor work in the studio, spin the music from one side of your brain to the other. It's almost too commercial for me, but it's somehow so addictive. Grab a copy from your local independent internet shop.

Secondly, the spacious Maybes EP is definitely by Mount Kimbie (picture above adapted from their MySpace page). Combining the darkness of Burial and the spaciness of Battles, this debut singl-- er-- EP is probably the smartest opening salvo I've heard for a while. Drones and drips and clonks and warm, luscious pads build into something that is quite ominous. Just please don't call it dubstep. Although I'd made a lazy note to write about Mount Kimbie some time ago, thanks to Anclove for properly turning me onto this duo.

Finally, the 12-inch. And it's the most beautiful 12-inch you have ever seen. (If you think 'day glo' is beautiful, that is.) Dan Deacon and Adventure took one side each of a garish yellow slab of vinyl and called it the Dan Deacon Adventure Split 12", Dan goes for speed drumming over a busy vocoder, while Adventure turns in a jaunty arcade game synth workout. It's all pretty ho hum, and not as exciting as Dan Deacon's album Bromst, which you can stream in its entirety here. (Edit: this link no longer has audio - get an up-to-date Dan Deacon link here.)

The single is dead, although with those sort of efforts from Mount Kimbie and Bullion, the corpse is looking pretty sexy.

This post is brought to you by the number twelve

As promised on my last postette, here are more photographs from our letters and numbers themed II event.

First off, let me announce a winner. We held a cute little competition where every DJ had to write their track list on an ABC wall poster (pictured above). So if they played Squarepusher, they had to write Squarepusher on the S square.

Every punter on the evening was invited to pick a random letter. Those whose letter corresponded to the most-written-in square were put into a prize draw.

The most played letter was B (specifically Big Wells, Bjork, Boyz Noize, Battles, Bird And The Bee, Boards Of Canada and Boom Bip). However, whoever had a B didn't put it in our prize draw box as instructed:


The same went for the second most played letters, S and T, so it ended up being a draw between those who had pulled A, M and V. (W was disqualified because a DJ wrote Yellow Wallpaper in the W square instead of the Y square.)

So anyway, here is the winner...



Here are some more pictures. From our live feed edited by visitors on the night:


From our random picture switcher:

And several strange visitors. A dalek, a woman who went around in black and white, and somewhere in the gloom is our wonderful resident DJ Kid Mingus.

Last but not least, the DJ booth had wonderfully homosexual fairly lights (no, seriously, they only flash in time to songs from South Pacific), while the Counting To 20 poster balanced out the emphasis on letters:

I'd rather have graah than um although I'm also partial to a hizzle phizzle lizzle

After years of fiddling with the minutae of voice manipulation and techno doo-dah-dery, Bjork (pictured) is back with what could only be described as a "choon".

That's the kind of "choon" that must, by law, be accompanied by a gurning grin and random air chops, possibly even throwing a T shape across the room to a confused but amiable grandmother.

With Timbaland on production, Bjork's Earth Intruders is the Icelandic chantause in tribal animal skin ripping apart the bones of Gary Numan's cars and spitting them out at anyone who dares come near. It's a progressive, aggressive pop song with sharp, nasty, bitey teeth, graar graar.

So Bjork is back - and how. Expect new album Volta to go stratospheric from next week and look our for her first tour since the prehistoric ages.

Also worth a lizzle through your hizzle phizzle (listen, head, phones) is the perverted Bee Gee squeal of Battles' latest single Atlas. I imagine this is the sound a startled alien would make when suddenly confronted by Stephen Hawking doing wheelies on the moon. A work of astonishing originality and definitely a Marmite moment if message boards are anything to go by.

If you fancy your electronica a bit more, um, commercial, try Boom Bip's Sacchrilege EP.

Less blippy and more electro than previous Boom Bip, this is gorgeous intensity with a classic techno vein running through its, um, commercial heart.

The only thing, it's just a little, um, commercial.

Um...

Battles: Atlas

Out on April 2nd. I missed out on New York's Battles first time round, but I'm reliably informed that their debut album was cooler than a kettle of flapjacks.

Love it or hate it? What you say?